The present invention relates to point-of-sale (POS) systems, and more specifically to a POS system including an isolation layer between POS server software and a client POS application program.
POS systems typically include a central server and a plurality of checkout terminals connected through a client-server network.
The checkout terminals include bar code readers and keyboards for entry of the item numbers during a transaction.
The central server stores a price look-up (PLU) file which associates item numbers with item prices. The central server processes requests from the checkout terminals for price information for the items. The central server may perform additional tasks, such as storing transaction history (audit log and transaction totals history), storing accountability totals, storing cashier and terminal accountability totals, holding future price change information (batches), performing credit authorization, performing check validation, and performing frequent shopper validation and specials.
POS checkout software has traditionally included client and server software that have been developed together and sold as a single proprietary product. However, this solution may not be an optimal one for a retailer. Retailers may find that combining server software from one developer with client software from another developer gives their POS systems the features that they want. This may be especially true for retailers that want the best solutions for both the server and client software in a market where no one developer of proprietary POS software exceeds at both.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a POS system including an isolation layer between the POS server software and the POS client application software to enable server and client software from different developers to be combined.